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Masters and doctoral dissertations on the karen Over 50 Masters and
Doctoral dissertations, organized chronologically, dating back as far as
1958. Two of them are downloadable, and most of them are available for about
US$ 30.- at UMI (we do not sell them ourselves). Search
for keywords by pressing Ctrl-F. 2008 Community-based
warviews, resiliency and healing among the internally displaced persons in
Mindanao and the Karen refugees on the Thai-Burmese border By Fuertes, Al Badilla Ph.D., George Mason University, 2008, 542 pages; AAT 3289656 This
dissertation explores the phenomenological realities of violence and trauma,
resiliency and healing in two cases: the Karen refugees who are situated on
the Thai-Burmese border and the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in
Bukidnon and Cotabato provinces in central Mindanao, Philippines. Both of
these displaced communities came as a result of constant fighting between
government military and minority armed opposition groups, causing massive
displacement of the civil population. The results of this study indicate that
warviews, defined as people's conceptualizations and articulations of their
experience of war and displacement, inform resiliency and that resiliency,
which constitutes people's capacity to survive, addresses people's warviews
towards healing. Healing for the participants in this study connotes
physiological and psycho-emotional, relational, economic, and political
implications. This study concludes that no matter how victimized they feel
about themselves, the IDPs in Mindanao and the Karen refugees, with further
assistance from the international community, the NGOs and the governments of
the Philippines (for the IDPs) and Burma as well as Thailand (for Karen
refugees), are capable of naming and responding to their individual and
collective sense of reality and they actively participate in their own
healing and community building. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2007 Parks, people
and power: Negotiating resource entitlements within a Karen village in Doi
Inthanon National Park, Thailand By Allan, Jennifer M.A., University of Guelph (Canada), 2007, 104 pages; AAT MR30533 This thesis
investigates how Karen villagers living in a national park in northern
Thailand access the resources necessary for their livelihoods. The villagers
live admid a global debates regarding the ability of local communities to
conserve natural resources and their place within protected areas. The Thai
state national park resource rules overlap with Karen traditional customs and
current practices. This mixed resource regime does not affect all villagers
equally. Opening up the community, using Amartya Sen's entitlement approach,
reveals important gender and wealth cleavages conditioning resource access
and entitlements. Gender is a fundamental factor influencing who can access
resources and by what means. The mixed regime is gendered and reinforces
gender stereotypes. At the heart of the daily experience of villagers, and
this thesis, is how the structures imposed by the state, gender inequality
and economic inequality constrain individual agency over resource use and
conservation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2005 Employing the ethnodevelopment model to
analyze Karen self-determination between 1949 and 2005 By Fong, Jack C. Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, 2005, 567 pages; AAT
3194056 My paper
examines Karen self-determination against Burma's military rule. The Karen,
one of Burma's many ethnic nationalities, embarked on their revolution for
self-determination in 1949 to liberate themselves from Burman hegemony and
oppression. To frame the clash between the Karen and military rule as a
development issue I employ and also revise Rodolfo Stavenhagen's ethnodevelopment
model. Ethnodevelopment argues that a multiethnic state should implement
ethnic minority-specific development strategies. After spending six months
conducting field work in and out of the Karen State of Kawthoolei, studying
the Karen Revolution, gathering data from Karen villagers, refugees, members
of the Karen National Union and guerillas of the Karen National Liberation
Army, it became clear that Stavenhagen's strategy is ineffective for
improving the Karen human condition for it assumes that a centralized
government will distribute resources effectively to its ethnic minorities. Since
1962 the pro-Burman military-regime in Burma has been engaged in a program of
violent ethnic cleansing against its ethnic minorities. The Karen people and
their state have been severely maldeveloped as a result. Yet Stavenhagen's
approach does not entertain the premise of a "failed" Burman state
that, through its internally colonizing policies, has left the Karen State's
institutions in a condition of what I term systemic crisis. Within
this context, I revise Stavenhagen's top-to-bottom ethnodevelopment, which
places the burden of ethnic minority development upon the centralized state,
to make visible a bottom-to-top trajectory I designate as liberation
ethnodevelopment . Karen liberation ethnodevelopment is exemplified by
autonomous Karen social institutions that exist in structural opposition to
Burman institutions. The presence of such institutions sustain a
self-determination trajectory that grants the Karen agency to seek freedom,
repair their damaged institutions, continue to reproduce their nation, as
well as countering internal colonization and genocide. I argue that because
Burma's ethnocratic rule has resulted in a genocidal campaign against the
Karen---a rule plagued by numerous human rights violations, tens of thousands
of Karen deaths, and the virtual destruction of their regional political
economy---Burma is a failed state. I then argue that international
interventions should shift its attention toward supporting Karen self-determination
as a development. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2004 'Fixing' the forest: The spatial reorganization of inhabited
landscapes in Mae Tho National Park, Thailand This dissertation addresses the
problem of growing park-people conflict and related land-use change in the
populated highland forests of Northern Thailand. It examines a case in which
the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) is trying to establish a national park by
piloting a land-use model that encourages a transition from swidden to
permanent cultivation and from communal to private land ownership. This model
takes a landscape long managed through flexible, dynamic and overlapping
patterns of use and proposes to manage them using simple fixed boundaries.
The dissertation identifies a process of spatial reorganization that plays a
central role in the transition experienced by mountain landscapes in Northern
Thailand, and arguably in many populated forested areas where control over
natural resource management is shifting from local to state institutions.
This transition has implications for livelihoods, forests, management
institutions, cultural practices and social relations. The dissertation
investigates the spatial reorganization by documenting the knowledge and
perspectives of local people and forestry staff, mapping the different spaces
produced by local and state management practices, and analyzing the results
of a shift from one spatial organization to another. I collected data in two
Karen ethnic minority villages at different stages of the spatial
re-organization and with RFD staff over a sixteen-month period from February
2001 to July 2002. I made use of a range of methods and analytical tools
including focus groups, key informant interviews, participatory observation,
household surveys, ecological transects, participatory mapping and GPS/GIS.
The research finds that while there was a slight increase in forest cover,
most households suffer from rice shortage and have difficulty selling any
produce. Meanwhile the fixing of once flexible management systems into
statically bounded land-use units has contributed to less community
cooperation and choice in farming activities, increased inter-community
conflict and the erosion of community institutions for land allocation.
Consequently, villagers seek to re-establish old territories, thwarting
government efforts to establish a National Park. The dissertation concludes
by exploring how understanding the spatial dynamics of local resource use
(e.g., boundary demarcation and gendered activity patterns) might inform
different, less conflict ridden and more equitable, conservation mechanisms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Karen perspectives on schooling in their
communities: Indigenous knowledge and western models of education By O'Brien, Scott M.A., University of Toronto (Canada), 2004, 91 pages; AAT MQ91336 In its broadest
sense, this thesis is an exploration of the potential for Indigenous people
to decolonise their education systems in the process towards
self-determination. The Karen are an Indigenous people of Burma, who have
survived centuries of oppression at the hands of the Burman feudal system.
For the past fifty-five years they have been engaged in a struggle for
self-determination against the Burmese military junta. This research examines
the extent to which eurocentric knowledge and values continue to frame Karen
education which is central to this nationalist project. Through an
examination of the experiences and insights of Karen Elders, administrators,
and teachers, the thesis raises questions about the relevance of schooling which
fails to valorize Karen traditional knowledge and ways of knowing to the
Karen struggle for self-determination. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Social and ecological dimensions of fallow
dynamics in a Karen swidden cultivation system in Thailand By Kansuntisukmongkol,
Kulvadee Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 2004, 197 pages; AAT
3161438 This study
reexamines the common belief that a shortening of fallow periods leads to
environmental degradation, declining productivity, and breakdown of the
swidden agricultural system. Incorporating concepts of fallowing behavioral
complexity, ecological heterogeneity, and socio-economic adaptability of
local farming systems, this dissertation suggests that local self-governance
of forest resources, traditional ecological knowledge, cultural practices,
and local adaptive management play important roles in shaping the
relationship of farming disturbance regimes, fallow recovery, swidden
productivity, and on-farm biodiversity. The findings lend support to the hope
for reconciliation of the conservation of secondary forest, traditional
farming systems, and on-farm agrodiversity of upland rice. Chapter 2
discusses fallowing practices, which determine forest disturbance frequency
among the Karen in western Thailand. Individual and group controls of
fallowing practices are more complicated than the existing literature, which
focuses on population pressure, proposes. Fallowing practices follow optimal
foraging strategies, where population size is large and members are
heterogeneous in terms of knowledge, experiences, interests, and concerns.
The strategies have been altered in a community that drafted local
institutions to govern the practices. Chapter 3 discusses how the
heterogeneity of the current forest-fallow ecosystems has been influenced by
historical land use practices. Fallow recovery is influenced by fallow age,
fallow cycle length, and cultural practices. The Karen cultural practices not
only shape the relationship between farming disturbances and forest and soil
recovery, but also prevent arrested forest regeneration in weed stage.
Chapter 4 discusses the Karen adaptive response to the declines in swidden
productivity caused by shortening fallow lengths by means of adjusting
cropping systems in accordance with weed and soil conditions. The shortening
of fallow length did not necessarily lead to declines in rice crop
performance or farming system breakdown, and this shows that the fallow cycle
cannot serve as a single key to understand and predict swidden productivity.
Chapter 5 discusses the conservation and selection of rice landraces as an
example of the socio-economic adaptability of the Karen in response to the
shortening of fallow periods. Farmers select rice varieties that insure productivity
over taste quality, which influences the uniformity of rice diversity within
a village. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Changing land use patterns in northern Thailand: Effects of
agricultural practices in Mae Chaem Abstract: This dissertation presents
the impacts of historical land use on landscape patterns and dynamics in
three ethnic Karen villages in the district of Mae Chaem, Chiang Mai
province, Northern Thailand. In Khun Mae Yot, farmers have retained a
traditional long-fallow shifting cultivation system with a 10-12 year fallow
period. In Mae Hae Tai, the length of fallow has been shortened to 5-6 years.
In Yang Sarn, shifting cultivation was replaced with permanent agriculture in
the mid-1980s. Vegetation surveys were carried out to examine variation in
floristic and structural components of secondary vegetation and forestland
cover types contained within each landscape. In general, number of trees and
basal area increase with fallow age, with a slight drop of the number of trees
in residual original forest plots. Tree species diversity is lowest in the
younger fallow stands and increases as the stands get older, with a slight
decrease in mature forest stands. An exception is Yang Sarn's disturbed
forest, which contained only a few large trees. Overall, plots in Khun Mae
Yot have the highest species diversity, while plots in Yang Sarn have the
lowest diversity and those in Mae Hae Tai contain intermediate values. Even
though fallow plots had attained similar levels of basal area and species
richness at some ages, their species composition remained distinct from that
of the representative stands of residual original forest. Landscape analysis
of time-series aerial photographs taken at intervals between 1954 and 1996
allows investigation of effects of different histories of agriculture on
landscape dynamics. The landscape of Khun Mae Yot showed the least changes in
landscape proportions and patterns. Land cover classes appeared to be almost
constant throughout the 1954-1996 period, but land cover patches show dynamic
interchanges. The reduction of fallow length in Mae Hae Tai resulted in
increasing dominance of secondary vegetation as well as the disappearance of
forest by 1996. The landscape thus became more homogeneous. The landscape of
Yang Sarn showed a substantial increase in agricultural area at the expense
of secondary vegetation and forest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2003 Imperceptible naked-lives and atrocities: Forcibly displaced
peoples and the Thai-Burmese in-between spaces ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Culture and development in northern Thailand: a comparative
study of Karen and Hmong adaptation to government intervention During the last few decades, the Thai
government has been involved in the highlands of northern Thailand with
several policies. Four in particular have affected the lives of the ethnic
minorities living there: outlawing swiddening, reforesting deforested areas,
outlawing opium, and introducing cash corps. These policies have been carried
out rather uniformly, ignoring the cultural differences of the ethnic groups.
Yet, these ethnic groups have reacted differently to the various development
policies. While there are clear
patterns between ethnic groups that indicate that the divergent adaptations
are due to their cultural background, this has rarely been investigated, and
has never been the subject of a comparative study. This thesis discusses the
cultural background behind the differences between the Karen and the Hmong. To
do so, the thesis focuses on the outlook of the two ethnic groups, breaking
it down into three components: the perception individuals have of space and
place, the relationship between individuals, and the relationship between
traditions when individuals perform an activity. The thesis argues that it is outlook which is responsible
for the Karen attempt to remain subsistence-oriented, and for the Hmong
transition to a cash-oriented economy. The Karen are more indigenous, which
means that they have a closer relationship to the local environment while
fearing and mistrusting what comes from outside the locality. At the same
time, they have multi-stranded social contexts, which makes them more
conservative and risk averse. This prompts them to seek a solution to land
scarcities inside their locality, and to engage in birth control. On the
other hand, the Hmong have an exogenous outlook that prompts them to look for
a solution to land scarcities outside the village cluster. At the same time,
the Hmong are engaged in single-stranded social relations, that makes them
more ambitious, independent and risk taking. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No longer strangers: A cross-cultural bible study for Tabernacle Baptist Church of Utica,
New York has recently welcomed a community of ethnic Karen refugees from
Burma (Myanmar) into its congregational life. This endeavor challenges
aspects of the existing congregational culture of this historic "Old
First" mainline Protestant, American Baptist related congregation
located in an economically struggling small northeastern city. It also offers
the opportunity for the congregation to renew its ministry as it more fully
embraces the radically inclusive table fellowship at the core of Jesus'
proclamation of the basilea of God. The caring and compassionate
welcome the church has extended to newly arrived refugees in many ways embodies
the Christian theological and ecclesial ideal of hospitality. However,
implicit in the host/guest relationship is a power differential between host
and guest. Cultural orientations and linguistic barriers between
Euro-American and Karen congregants exacerbate this power differential.
Hospitality in its most complete manifestation provides an equal place at the
table for all. Consequently, a project was designed to create a space in the
congregational life of Tabernacle Baptist Church in which the experiences,
insights and cultural gifts of both long term members and more recently
arrived refugees could be shared, discussed, and treasured. The goal was to
encourage congregants from the church's two culturally and linguistically
distinct groups to build relationships that would allow them to listen and
hear one another in an environment of mutual acceptance and respect. A six
session, cross-cultural Bible Study on portions of the Exodus narrative was
designed. Building on the work of Eric H. F. Law and Walter Wink, a variety
of cross-cultural communication and subjective/imaginative techniques were
employed. Six lay leaders were trained in this cross-cultural Bible Study
method. These leaders formed and led three short-term,
ethnically/linguistically balanced, gender or age delineated Bible Study
groups. The success of these groups was evaluated using a variety of data
gathering techniques, including: questionnaires, mutual invitation
discussions, interviews, and observation. The cross-cultural Bible Study
groups to a significant extent created an environment and provided techniques
that enabled both Euro-American and Karen congregants to meet on common
ground, develop relationships, and share their experiences, insights, and
cultural traditions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2001 A hermeneutic approach in the study of transformation and
being in healing and identity of health professionals serving: The Karen, the
Hmong, the Akha (Burma, Thailand) The aim of the participatory research
project was to study the nature of healing as transformation in cultural
modes of identity within the hermenuetic tradition. The meaning of healing
was examined within the context of the following ethnic groups: the Karen in
Burma, the Hmong in Thailand, and the Akha in Thailand. The data was
collected from eleven health professionals who serve these populations. The
participants were invited to volunteer in formal participatory conversations
which were guided by issues of culture and how aspects of culture influence
one's life and the lives of those they care for in a healing encounter,
transformation and being in healing and the issues of language. Critical
hermenuetic inquiry takes an ontological orientation towards the
interpretation of human experience and the healing process. Interpretation of
these stories were placed in language and the meaning is derived from the
reflective process as the researcher involved her life into a dialectic with
the participants. Aspects of healing revealed in stories that were
significant included the communities of suffering and the metaphors of
healing and transformation which provided an opening of understanding between
the health-care provider and their patients. The narrative process provided
an opportunity for health-care professionals to better understand themselves
and the transformation of healing that occurs in the Karen, the Hmong, and
the Akha as well as possibilities for other groups. Narrative creates new
forms of human time and new forms of human community. The future holds
possibilities which can be narrated. Health-care professionals incorporated
historical ideas about culture into their current practice situations and
applied differences to shape the futures they envision for themselves as well
as the Karen, the Hmong, and the Akha. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Economic crisis, elite cooperation, and democratic stability:
Asia in the late 1990s (Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines,
The Philippines) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Ecological studies of reduced forest-fallow shifting
cultivation of Karen people in Mae Chaem watershed, The forest-fallow system of shifting
cultivation of upland rice and other food plants practiced by the Karen
people of Mae Hae Tai village, Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, is changing due
to increasing population and a resulting decrease in per capita arable
land-base. This has resulted in a reduction of the fallow period, which was
10 or more years in the past. Ecological studies were conducted to examine
nutritional aspects of the forest-fallow shifting cultivation using field
experiments and a chronosequence of fields. The farmers were interviewed
about their traditional knowledge of shifting cultivation system management.
The yield of the upland rice crop under this system was found to be about 1
t/ha, but is variable within fields, between fields, and between years. The
chronosequence study revealed that during the five years of fallow there was
an increase in soil organic matter and total N attributed to the addition of
litterfall from the fallow species, but a decline in pH, available P, and
extractable K, Ca, and Mg. The biogeochemical studies of the forest-fallow shifting
cultivation system showed that nutrient losses via slash burning and
harvested rice grain are important outputs of N. P was found to be lost the
most via harvested rice grain, while losses in erosion and leaching may be
important for K, Ca, and Mg. A series of carefully controlled and replicated
field and pot experiments is needed to resolve the relative importance of the
different contributions of fallow to the sustainability of upland rice. The
following topics also deserve further research work: dynamics of N in the
system, change in resource-allocation patterns between above- and belowground
tree components, soil microbial activities and their effects on N cycling,
and other roles of the fallow periods (e.g. maintaining good soil structure
and providing useful plants and animals). The current fallow period of five
years appears to be sustainable at the present landscape condition, but a
further reduction in fallow length may pose a risk to the apparent
sustainability of this forest-fallow shifting cultivation. Comparison of
nutrient cycling between forest-fallow shifting cultivation and fixed-field
farming by simple and/or computer models is needed to assess their
sustainability. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2000 Redefining nature: Karen ecological knowledge and the
challenge to the modern conservation paradigm (Thailand) This dissertation is an ethnography
that offers a critical analysis of issues in contemporary conservation
politics in Thailand. By examining the development of the dominant nature
conservation ideology and the response by the Karen, a group of ethnic hill
people, to changing patterns of environmental control, the dissertation
focuses on two main themes. The first part covers the Thai forest history and
the role of development of scientific forestry in shaping discourses and
practices of Thai nature conservation. The latter part explores Karen
ecological knowledge and its challenge to the modern conservation paradigm. Central
to the dissertation is the argument that "hill tribes",
"nature", and "conservation", in Thailand are not only
constructions but are also constantly "under construction". The
questions of how the dominant nature conservation ideology has been
constructed and how this ideology has been contested are the key issues of
this dissertation. By tracing the historical development of forestry in Thailand,
this study shows how Thai nature conservation is a product of a social and
political economic transformation in which shifting conceptions of the forest
represents an essential part of the modernization of the Thai nation. The
colonial legacy of commercial forestry, the desire for modernization, and the
use of natural resources for developmental purposes are fundamental to the
establishment of nature conservation in urban Thai society. The making of
nature conservation represents a significant form of technology of government
that involves the creation of certain institutions, knowledge, and
bureaucratic rationality. As the state is not an undifferentiated entity,
internal bureaucratic politics have also significantly shaped the ways
resources have been differently viewed and utilized by different state
agencies. In analyzing the mentality shared among foresters and some nature
conservationists, this study suggests that the efficacy of conservation
ideology lies not only in the power of scientific forestry to transform
perceptions of landscape and the relationships linking landscape with certain
groups of people, but also in the capability to blend such perceptions into
the existing structure of class and ethnic inequality. As a result, class
differentiation and ethnic discrimination have become an integral part of the
structure of nature conservation ideology in Thai society. The second part of
this dissertation examines the ways in which Karen knowledge has
problematized the construction and centralization of the state's modern
conservation paradigm. In encounters with contemporary conservation politics,
Karen ecological knowledge represents a dynamic and responsive mode of
conceptualizing nature developed out of interactions among competing discourses
and knowledge of various social groups. Local challenge to dominant forestry
ideologies has therefore been constituted through the appropriation of
foreign knowledge such as mapping and the invention of local tradition in
resource management. This study shows that the Karen adoption of certain
terminologies, such as community forest and rotational swidden agriculture,
manifested in local maps has provided them with a communicative device for
use in dialogues with forestry officials as well as with non-government
organizations. These counter-discourses have been employed by the Karen as a
strategic tool to defend their resources and to re-situate the marginal space
and identity of the Karen within the dominant Thai society. In this respect,
reinvented forms of local knowledge are generated through ongoing encounters
between the dominating and dominated ideas and practices with regard to
nature conservation in the Karen struggle for recognition within the dominant
Thai society. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Religion and politics among the Chin people in Burma,
(1896--1949) In many Asian countries today, there
are potential conflicts between the majority religion and culture and ethnic
minorities who practice another religion or religions. Problems are easily
aggravated if the government applies a confessional policy on religion, which
favors the majority religion, while minority religions are marginalized or
even suppressed. Contemporary Burma, or Myanmar, is one example. Actually the
very name "Myanmar" implies confessional claims and ethnic
exclusiveness, even if the present military junta would prefer to be
characterized as having opted for a secular policy on religion. In Burma, the
maneuvering room for ethnic minorities is at issue. The current situation of
the Chin, Kachin, and Karen, for instance, can be seriously questioned from a
human rights point of view. This study focuses on religion and politics among
the Chin people in Burma. Until the British annexation in 1896, Chinram, was
an independent country ruled by the Chin's traditional tribal and local
chiefs called Ram-uk and Khua-bawi, respectively. Although
all the tribes and villages followed the same pattern of belief systems, the
ritual practices in traditional Chin religion - called Khua-hrum
worship - were very much mutually exclusive, and thus could not serve to
unite the entire Chin people under a single religious institution. The
traditional structures of religion and culture are explored in Part One. By
the turn of twentieth century, however, Chin society was abruptly transformed
by powerful outside forces of change. The British conquered Chinram, and the Christian
missionaries followed the colonial powers and converted the people. This
process is studied in Part two with special reference to the nature of
change, which was thrust upon Chin society and - more importantly - how the
Chin responded to it. Part Three focuses on how the Chin increasingly became
related the Burmese attempts to form an Independent Federal Union. As the
process towards independence progressed, the Chin increasingly articulated
their own Christian traditions of democracy and asserted a burgeoning
self-awareness of their own national identity. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1999 People and protected areas: Impact and resistance among the
Pgak'nyau (Karen) in Thailand The society and identity of Pgak'nyau
(Karen) people in Thailand is integrally tied to their practice of
agriculture in forest environments. This thesis examines the resource management
system practised by the Pgak'nyau and how government conservation policies
have affected traditional ways of life. Changes in a strictly regulated
national park are compared to those in a village located in a national forest
reserve, where more flexibility is allowed in the use of natural resources.
The traditional way of life for the Pgak'nyau people began to undergo major
change in the 1960s when the Thai government passed new forest and wildlife
legislation, which expanded protected areas into Pgak'nyau lands. The
creation of strictly regulated national parks severely affected traditional
ways of life and created undue hardship in Pgak'nyau communities. A ban on
swidden agriculture in national parks reduced the already marginal size of
family farmland and park authorities have blocked most development assistance
to villages located within park territory. The effect has been to relegate
Pgak'nyau villages in national parks to a lower standard of living in
comparison to villages located outside park boundaries. In contrast,
Pgak'nyau villages located in national forest reserves have had a better
quality of life because of greater flexibility permitted in local use and
control of natural resources. Moreover, the government has provided
development programmes to these Pgak'nyau villages that have helped people
cope with legislative change. People have stopped practising swidden
agriculture, but continue to cultivate wet rice for subsistence and have
adopted the cultivation of cash crops which were introduced with government
assistance. Government conservation efforts have effected change in Pgak'nyau
villages, though these changes may have been unintended. Villages located in
forest reserves have shown no less concern in conservation efforts.
Traditions based on community management of forest resources have been
maintained so that environmentally sustainable agriculture is practised even
without the regulatory restrictions of national parks. Many villages have
responded to park pressures by forming conservation networks to lobby various
levels of government. These new organisations work to develop common
conservation practices among highland villages, while giving Pgak'nyau
villagers a hitherto unheard political voice. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sustainable ethnic tourism in northern Thailand: Challenges
and strategies Alternative forms of tourism such as
eco-tourism, adventure tourism and ethnic tourism have become popular options
for a number of native populations attempting to participate in mainstream
economic systems. In some cases, the addition of a tourism industry into
these populations has created as many problems as solutions for them. The
purpose of this study was to examine the sustainability of ethnic tourism in
northern Thailand from the perspective of a selected hill tribe population.
To achieve this goal, a case study of the hill tribe trekking industry in the
Karen village of Ban Raummit was undertaken. The findings of this study
suggest that tourism in Ban Raummit faces many challenges such as managing
the perceived authenticity of the attraction, controlling the development of
an unplanned front stage (tourism district), addressing the needs of the
changing tourist types, and dealing with a shifting ethnic balance within the
village. At the same time, the trekking industry seems to provide an
attractive and appropriate opportunity for the Karen people in this village
to maintain a viable lifestyle within a rapidly changing Thai state. Thus,
strategies to address these challenges and build a more sustainable industry
for the Karen of Ban Raummit have been recommended. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1997 Factors for the renewal of the Karen Baptist Church of Myanmar
Alternative forms of tourism such as
eco-tourism, adventure tourism and ethnic tourism have become popular options
for a number of native populations attempting to participate in mainstream
economic systems. In some cases, the addition of a tourism industry into
these populations has created as many problems as solutions for them. The
purpose of this study was to examine the sustainability of ethnic tourism in
northern Thailand from the perspective of a selected hill tribe population.
To achieve this goal, a case study of the hill tribe trekking industry in the
Karen village of Ban Raummit was undertaken. The findings of this study
suggest that tourism in Ban Raummit faces many challenges such as managing
the perceived authenticity of the attraction, controlling the development of
an unplanned front stage (tourism district), addressing the needs of the
changing tourist types, and dealing with a shifting ethnic balance within the
village. At the same time, the trekking industry seems to provide an
attractive and appropriate opportunity for the Karen people in this village
to maintain a viable lifestyle within a rapidly changing Thai state. Thus,
strategies to address these challenges and build a more sustainable industry
for the Karen of Ban Raummit have been recommended. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1996 Illegal conservation: Two case studies of conflict between
indigenous and state natural resource management This thesis is about how government
natural resource management systems have come into contact and conflict with
indigenous natural resource management systems. Two case studies have been
developed with two indigenous communities who have experienced conflict with
state management and have had their natural resource use criminalized by
state conservation laws. One case study is historical and was conducted with
the Red Rock Band, an Ojibway community located on the Nipigon River, in
northwestern Ontario. The second case study is contemporary, and was
conducted with Ban Mae Me Nai, a Karen community located in the Jae Sorn
National Park, in northern Thailand. This thesis seeks to answer three
questions about the nature of the conflict between government and indigenous
natural resource management systems: (1) How are indigenous natural resource
management systems criminalized? (i.e., how can the indigenous use of natural
resources be framed as unlawful) (2) How do indigenous communities respond to
having their resource use criminalized? (3) What has been the impact of the
imposition of state conservation laws on indigenous cultures and economy?
Four stages were observed in the criminalization of indigenous natural
resource use: (1) the indigenous management system is invisible, (2) the
indigenous use of the resources is portrayed as harmful, (3) the indigenous
use is defined as illegal, (4) the indigenous community eventually becomes
empowered to redress their rights to use and manage their natural resources
in their own manner. The research found that indigenous communities have not
been silent to the take-over of their resources and the criminalization of
their resource use. It was found that the imposition of state natural
resource management systems on indigenous communities has caused significant
impacts upon their culture, economy, and environment. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1995 A qualitative study of low socioeconomic status students in a
predominantly high socioeconomic status college in A qualitative study was conducted
during the summer of 1995 to gather descriptive data from a sample of Hill
Tribes students who were attending the Bangkok Business College, Bangkok,
Thailand. The purpose of the research was to gather descriptive data from a
sample of low socio-economic status (SES) Hill Tribes students (Hmong, Karen
and Lisu) attending a predominantly high SES college in Thailand. The study
focused on the factors that are important in low SES student adjustment and
achievement and the success of the application used in predominantly white
colleges in the United States to help indigenous students achieve academic
success. The micro-level approach employing a qualitative method was used for
the investigation. The research found that Hill Tribes children value
education as a way to raise their socio-economic status through employment in
urban areas. While parents did not provide financial support for the
education of their children, they took advantage of the national educational
policy for indigenous people. The opportunity for Hill Tribes students to
continue their education depended on direct and indirect costs. The most
important indirect cost was the social cost. The mechanisms that helped
reduce the direct costs were scholarship and accommodation. The academic
success of the Hill Tribes students in a predominantly high SES college was
the result of academic and social guidance and counseling as well as work
placement programs on the part of the college. The students' endeavor to
acquire academic success through participation of academic activities stemmed
from their desire for academic success. This study revealed that there was a
positive response for other SES groups to socially accept low SES indigenous
students. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1994 IMPOSING COMMUNITIES: PWO KAREN EXPERIENCES IN NORTHWESTERN
THAILAND Membership in larger communities such
as the nation-state has been imposed on many smaller communities, but local
communities and individuals continue to play a dynamic role in determining
how they participate. This ethnography explores the experiences of some
animist Pwo Karen in Northern Thailand who are in the process of being
integrated into the Thai State. As these Karen have dealt with increasing
governmental intervention in local affairs, they have begun to transform the
way they understand and relate to their own local communities. While the Ti
Buh Ri area Karen could not freely choose how to construct their relations
with the Thai State, they could choose to go along with, resist, or transform
the way government policies were implemented locally. More broadly, they
could attempt to reposition themselves either by joining the Karen who are
fighting for an autonomous state in Burma or by participating in Buddhist or
Christian communities in Thailand. How local Pwo Karen communities were
organized, interacted with the Thai State, and envisioned their options for
the future are analyzed throughout this ethnography. Communities are both
imposed on people and imposing to people. Here I consider how communities
were both imposed and imposing at the local, national, and transnational
level. Local Karen communities closely controlled individual behavior while
the Thai state attempted to impose new forms of community and identity. At
the same time, Karen leaders in Burma sought to inculcate a sense of ethnic
allegiance among the Karen in Thailand. In discussing how communities are
perceived as imposing, I have addressed the role of emotions in general, and
fear in particular, in shaping the way the Ti Buh Ri area Karen have
interpreted and constructed their experiences. Examining local constructions
of emotions is critical for understanding how people and communities perceive
and interact with others. With local Karen continually vying with each other
for prestige, harmonious relations have proved to be elusive. Conflict, while
rarely overt, was regularly expressed through public discourse around illness
diagnosis. Illnesses were often considered to result either directly or
indirectly from the actions of others. Moreover, individuals attempted to
improve their own positions by introducing new practices, attempting to
ignore community norms, and criticizing others. Thus, only by considering
local practices and interpretations of events, in addition to public
expressions of ideology, can social and political relations be more fully
understood. Practice theory, the cultural construction of emotions, and an
anthropology of experience have all informed this ethnography. I have sought
to demonstrate the divergent, positioned experiences of individuals and
communities, emphasizing the generative nature of experience. I have attended
to the intended and unintended consequences of peoples' actions and reflected
the extent to which a homogenizing world-systems approach cannot do justice
to the plurality of experiences and transformations which occur at the local
level. By focusing on the Ti Buh Ri area Karens' individual and community
efforts to solve novel problems and to reorient themselves within shifting
political realities, I have argued that greater attention must be given to
local practices, perceptions, and creativity. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sociocultural influences on child health
and nutritional status in Karen highlanders of Thailand This research examines the influence of mothers' beliefs and practices
about food and child care on the nutritional and health status of children,
while controlling for other factors which influence nutritional and health
status in Karen highlanders of northwest Thailand. The study was conducted from January through December 1991 and included
three major seasons: post-harvest, pre-harvest, and harvest. Data was
collected on individuals from 77 less modernized Pwo animist and 71 more
modernized Sgaw Christian households. The primary subjects within each family
were the mother and her preschool children. The data were collected using a
combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques, including participant
observation, 24-hour dietary recalls, food frequency interviews,
socioeconomic and demographic information, child health status, and
anthropometric measurements. Pwo children and
mothers had overall higher levels of nutritional stress than Sgaw children
and mothers. Pwo children had higher levels of stunting than Sgaw children
but similar low levels of wasting and similar levels of body fat. Pwo mothers
were generally shorter and skinnier than Sgaw mothers. These results
reflected lower levels of nutrient intakes and dietary adequacy among the Pwo
than among their Sgaw counterparts. There were very few seasonal fluctuations
in anthropometry in either ethnic group but there were greater seasonal
variations in percentages of the FAO/WHO recommended dietary intakes (RDIs)
in all ethnic groups. Finally, Pwo mothers and their children consumed
overall fewer food items and had less dietary diversity than Sgaw mothers and
their children in all three seasons. The nutritional and
health status differences between the Sgaw Christians and Pwo animists were
associated with numerous socioeconomic and demographic variables and
especially with belief system differences. The most reasonable explanation is
that these differences relate to the fact that the Sgaw Christians tend to
have a greater exposure to a modern way of life than do Pwo animists. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1993 Religion and social change: Ethnic continuity and change among
the Karen in Thailand with reference to the Canadian Indian experience This thesis analyzes the process of
social change that has occurred as a result of conversion to Christianity by
the Karen in northern Thailand and the Indians in Canada. It is based on data
collected in 1991 from two Karen villages; one Animist and the other
Christian. The study used intensive interview schedules to interview a random
sample of people in each village. It also utilized participant observation of
various activities in order to discern changes in the villages. The data on
the comparison to the Canadian Indian experience is based on secondary
sources. Analysis of the data demonstrates that both Karen and Indian
cultures have changed since significant numbers of each converted to
Christianity. Christianity has also had a major impact on Karen and Indian
identity. However, neither group has assimilated into the dominant culture.
Both Karen and Indians are developing their own distinctive ethnic identities
and cultures. The new identity of Christian Karen and Indians is the result
of a blending of aboriginal culture and the culture of dominant societies. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Innocent pioneers and their triumphs in a foreign land: A
critical look at the work of the American Baptist Mission in the Chin Hills
(1899-1966) in Burma from a missiological perspective (Baptist) This dissertation examines the strong
and weak points of the work of the American Baptist Mission in the Chin Hills
(1899-1966) in Burma. The study argues that the ecumenical conciliar approach
to mission--i.e defending the validity of mission but not limiting the saving
power of God to Christianity--is the most acceptable approach since it is
more consistent with Christian belief and also with the insights of the
modern study of world mission. The study also shows that the American Baptist
missionaries to the Chin Hills deserve commendation for their love for the
Chins and for their zeal and efforts of preaching the Gospel throughout the
Chin Hills. At the same time we see that the missionaries condemned many
aspects of Chin culture--even those aspects which were not opposed to Christian
beliefs--as animistic and introduced Christianity with their own western
culture. Today the fourth generation of Chin Christians no longer know their
culture and customs. The American Baptist missionaries created three
different writing systems for the northern Chin Hills and translated the
Bible into three different dialects. Thus, instead of uniting the Chin into
one group, the literary work of the missionaries divided the northern Chin
Hills into three groups. This division exacerbated communication difficulties
in this small area. Finally, the study considers the Chin perception that in
terms of education, they were neglected by the American Baptist Foreign
Mission Society (ABFMS) because the ABFMS contributed much more money and
personnel for work among the Karen and the Burmese in the plain area. This
feeling of resentment became so strong that the Zomi (Chin) Baptist
Convention attempted to end its affiliation with the American Baptist
Churches/USA and to join the Southern Baptist Convention. The study thus
concludes that innocent human zeal, knowledge, motivation, and labor for
communicating the gospel to other cultures can not by themselves produce the
desired result in the mission field. Before bringing the Gospel to the people
of another culture, we need to study carefully their past and present
cultural expressions, their context, and their needs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sword of the spirit: Christians, Karens, colonialists, and
the creation of a nation of Burma An ethnography of representation
combining the following elements: (a) The American Baptist Mission to the
Karen people of Burma; (b) The emergence of Karen nationalism as a
consequence of the former, demonstrating the centrality of the phenomenon of
'writing,' introduced by the missionaries, in this process; (c) The colonial
milieux in Burma, as evoked by the diverse documentary voices of American
Baptists, British colonialists, and Karen Christians; (d) Ethnic politics,
from the Karen rebellion after Burma's independence through the current
democratic challenge posed by a coalition of Burma's largest ethnic groups,
including Burman; (e) The fieldwork process; research and writing;
ethnography; exoticism and primitivism; and the construction of this text
itself. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOWARD A NEW MISSIONARY IMPULSE OF THE KAREN BAPTIST CHURCH OF
MYANMAR (BAPTIST) The Karen people
are one of the minority ethnic groups in Myanmar. Their religious traditions,
such as the Ywa (God) legend and the story of the Lost Book, had prepared
them to accept Christ in great numbers. The Karen Baptist Church was begun
with Ko Tha Byu's conversion, which was a turning point and initiated the
sunrise of a people movement among the Karens and even among other ethnic
groups in Myanmar. The following factors contributed to the growth and
development of the church: the three-selfs, education, literature,
leadership, evangelism, and supernatural factors. From the early days and
until now, the church has done a missionary work among its own people and
among other ethnic groups as well. Nevertheless, about eighty percent of the
Karen population is still non-Christian. It is evident that the growth of the
church is not adequate. In order to improve its growth, the church must
engage much more in mission since the two are closely related. Thus, the
church has been analyzed and evaluated, and its strengths and weaknesses are
identified. After identifying the strengths and weaknesses, the missiological
principles for a new missionary impulse of the church for its growth have
been formulated and recommended. The missiological principles which are
necessary for the growth of the church are the prerequisites for mission,
which include theological breakthroughs, spiritual dynamics, leadership
development, and the symbiotic relationship of the two structures of the
church. It is not enough for the church to have the prerequisites for
mission. It must also know how to strategize for mission in order to reach
out and grow. The strategies for mission, which the church needs, include the
teaching and application of some essential missiological principles. These
include mission and evangelism, church growth, and theology of mission. These
principles should be taught at Seminaries, Bible schools, and conferences for
pastors, women, and youth. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Study of Karen Baptist Church Growth In Myanmar Plans for future
mission work should be based on data that reflect the past. An evaluation of
the history of the Karen Baptist Church in Myanmar portrays a struggle for
the survival and growth of the church where contextual and institutional
factors inhibit its past and present growth. Having in mind both the past
difficulties and a hope for the future growth of the Karen Baptist Church,
this research recommends prayer for renewal, understanding of church growth
principles and missiology, leadership and the power and gifts of the Holy
Spirit as the means of growth and effective mission work of the church. The
purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of church growth,
particularly of the Karen Baptist Church, in order to contribute toward its
future mission. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The need for renewal and mission in the Karen Baptist Church
of Burma Essentially and ultimately the
mission task is committed to the Holy Spirit. He is the present administrator
of mission, the propagation of the precious Gospel of God concerning Jesus
Christ. He is the only source for renewal. The church growth movement and the
mission of the Karen Baptist Church showed the early Karen leaders were
inspired by the Holy Spirit. This study is based on the conviction that the
power of the Holy Spirit, Key person, prayer and strategy are the basic needs
for renewal and mission of the church. Eighty percent of the Karen population
is still non- Christian. It is evident that the growth of the church is not
adequate. In order to improve its growth, the church must be renewed and
engage much more in mission work. Only a renewed church will produce
committed Christians for the Kingdom of God. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1992 Ritual and religious transformation among Sgaw Karen of
Northern Thailand: Implications on gender and ethnic identity This dissertation explores changes in
ritual and religion among the Sgaw Karen people of Northern Thailand, through
the analysis of continuities and transformations from traditional ritual
practices to those of Christianity and Buddhism. It examines the role of
ritual and religion for an ethnic minority group which is negotiating its
identity and belonging in a modernizing Buddhist nation. It pays attention to
the ways in which Karen ethnic identity and gender relation articulate these
changes against the background of rapid socioeconomic changes and increasing
involvement in the Thai national structure. While many Karen villagers
continue to perform traditional rituals, both Christianity and Buddhism find
larger followings among Karen than any of the other 'hill tribes' in Thailand. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A renewal strategy of the Karen Baptist Church of Myanmar
(Burma) for mission Biblical and theological truth is the
basic foundation of renewal. The renewal movements of Pietism, Moravianism,
and Methodism clearly exhibited the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in
renewal in the church and the outcome of renewal in mission
cross-culturally. The dynamic of
these movements was linked in many aspects and has parallels to the Karen
Baptist Church context. Church growth, people movements and the mission of
the Karen Baptist Church showed how the Karen fore-fathers were zealous in
mission. Poverty, oppression, institutionalization and nominalism, including
both external and internal factors inhibit the church today. This research
recommends repentance, the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit, a focus on
biblical truth, leadership and prayer as the means of achieving the renewal
of the church. The purpose of this study is to utilize these key dynamics and
recommended a strategy for the renewal of the Karen Baptist Church so it can
produce committed Christians and evangelize the larger non-Christian
population in the country. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aphasia: Some neurological, anthropological and postmodern
implications of disturbed speech This work begins by examining the
history of aphasia studies, placing them in the context of historically
concurrent theories about speech and language. The historical analysis can be
read as a deconstructive incision into contemporary discourses which use
information about language to make inferences about brain functioning or
thought processes. A deconstructive critique of aphasiology and those
sciences upon which it is built, including linguistics and localization
theory, suggests that aphasia is constructed artificially so that it cannot
be localized or explained by brain mechanisms. Anthropological influences in
this work inform the style of analysis as well as the range of inquiry.
Situated in postmodern anthropology, the thesis includes an investigation of
positioning: positioning of the author within medicine (neurology) and
anthropology; and positioning as a phenomenon brought about by certain sets
of practices. Among these practices are those related to the scientific method
and those related to more interpretive or hermeneutic strategies. Several
controversies within anthropology are related to the clash between science
and not-science, including feminist and postmodern debates. Practices, which
are situation-dependent, are not as conflicted as theories are and provide
reasonable ways to separate sense (or meaningfulness) from non-sense (or
artifacts) in daily life and work. Related to questions of method and
interpretation are questions about 'data.' What count(s) as data? Should
units of significance be predetermined, or discovered in the process of
investigation? How do standardized methodologies or interpretive expectations
shape the outcome of clinical, scientific, and anthropological studies? A
narrative style is employed to discuss these questions by telling particular
stories involving research and publication: case reports in neurology;
semantics of sentence accent in Alzheimer's disease; and fieldwork in
northern Thailand concerning nonliteracy and its effects on cognitive
processes among Karen hilltribes. These disciplinary projects are contrasted
and data creation discussed. What began as an examination of the history of
aphasia studies concludes in discussion of aphasic speech as an
example/critique of postmodern and anthropological discourse. Practices that
cluster around the study of aphasia, particularly those involving living
patients, provide useful critiques to scientific, anthropological and
postmodern theorizations. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1990 A brief history and development factors of the Karen Baptist
Church of Burma (Myanmar) The Karens accepted Christ in great
numbers and formed the most developed, largest church in Burma. What were the
contributing factors? Religious traditions, such as the YWA (God) legend and
The Story of the Lost Book, had prepared the Karens for Christianity. Ko Tha
Byu's conversion marked the beginning, which soon became a people movement.
Evangelistic zeal and supernatural factors aided the development of the Karen
Baptist Church. It was self- propagating, self-supporting and self-governing,
actively engaged in education, literature and leadership training. The Church
now focuses on reaching Karen non-Christians. Evaluation supports several
recommendations for future mission work for this Church in order to fulfill
its theme, 'Burma for Christ.' -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1989 In search of the Karen king: A study in Karen identity with
special reference to 19th century Karen evangelism If one studies the religious map of
Southeast Asia, it is interesting to note that the percentage of Christians
is small, but in certain areas, concentrated in specific environments, the
number of Christians is quite considerable If one looks more carefully, with
reference to ethnic classifications, one soon realizes that Christianity has
a greater affiliation among ethnic minorities, which tend to be marginalized
in regard to the general national development. The Karen Christian community
in Burma and Thailand is a case in point. Modern historical and
anthropological studies on the Karen emphasize the complex issue of Karen
identity, or Karen-ness, in the midst of a multi-ethnic environment. An
important element of this Karen identity is the sharing of common historical
experiences--exploitation, persecution and marginalization. In studies of
Karen identity formation, which give due attention to this historical
dimension, exploration of the formation and role of the Karen Christian
community becomes significant. The present study focuses on the formation of
a representative Christian minority within the Karen community in Thailand.
It traces an indigenous missionary and ecclesiastical development by
following the formation of one distinct feature within Karen identity, rather
than investigating only a purely institutional development. Chapters I and II
outline the wider historical and religious changes in the region in the 19th
century, paying special attention to the influence of political Buddhism and
millenarian movements in the face of external and internal colonial
expansion. The second part of the study gives a historical survey of
different missionary attempts to reach the Karen in Thailand from the 1820s
through the late 1870s (chapter III). The focus is on the ensuing process of
the establishment, rise and subsequent stalemate of the Christian community
among the Karen in northern Thailand (chapter IV). The final section (chapter
V) is a summary assessment, which gives special attention to the interaction
of Karen identify and Karen Christian identity. As such, it relates the
findings of this study to a wider discussion on the role of religious
identity among ethnic minorities. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Search Of The Karen King: A Study In
Karen Identity With Special Reference To 19th Century Karen Evangelism In
Northern Thailand (Nineteenth Century) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1987 Siam's loss of Trans-Salween territory to Great Britain in
1892 Siam's loss of the Trans-Salween
territory in 1892 was a consequence of the territorial dispute between
Britain and Siam after the British annexation of Burma in 1886. This study
investigates the causes of the dispute both on the part of Siam and of Britain,
the reasons why the British insisted on annexing this area, and finally the
reaction of the Siamese and their resolution of this problem. The dispute
began in 1884 when the Siamese claimed the area during the launching of an
administrative reform program in that region. After the annexation of Burma
in 1886 the British also claimed the area, based on the assertion that since
they succeeded to the rights of the king of Burma, the area should be theirs
as well. The Siamese protested and futile negotiations took place for several
years. In 1890, another dispute over the Trans-Salween Karenni arose, after
the British annexation of the Karen country. Despite the appointment of
boundary commissions by both sides to settle the problems, the negotiations
dragged on. In June 1892, both sides finally came to an agreement to settle
their problems. The Siamese renounced all their claims to the territory on
the east bank of the Salween and accepted Kyiang Chiang, a Shan state on the
Mekong River, as compensation from the British. The Siamese gave in because
at that time they were threatened by the French on their eastern frontier and
did not want to antagonize the British whose support would be useful, should
France take an aggressive action against them. The British on the other hand
wanted the area because they feared that in the future France might expand in
that direction. To be secure the British decided to annex the area so that
they could have the watershed as their boundary line instead of the river.
Similar to other cases elsewhere, Siam's loss of the Trans-Salween territory
was a consequence of Weltpolitik. Had Siam not possessed a competent,
resourceful government at that time, there would have been little chance for
the country to have remained independent during the heyday of European
colonial expansion. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FARMER MANAGEMENT OF RICE VARIETY DIVERSITY IN NORTHERN
THAILAND (HMONG, KAREN) Agricultural scientists involved in
extending modern crop varieties in developing countries should respect
indigenous practices which maintain varietal diversity within cereal
monocultures. In situ diversity of germ plasm preserves evolutionary options,
enables the 'reversibility' of varietal change at the local level, and
reduces disease and insect problems. Fieldwork among lowland Thai, Hmong, and
Karen farming communities in northern Thailand demonstrates that there was
active retention of rice varietal diversity in irrigated and upland
agroecosystems, whereas in the rainfed area lowland Thai farmers discarded
all traditional rice varieties, apparently due to the incompatibility of
these varieties with chemical fertilizer, which was widely used on rainfed
soils. Some farmers actively exchange rice varieties along kinship lines
between villages and districts due to their perception that yields decline
when the same variety is grown successively for more than three years.
Genetic erosion of varieties has been high, but so is the influx of new
varieties to irrigated and upland areas. Of 89 lowland Thai varieties
collected in the approximate study area in 1950-61, only 15 were collected
under the same names in 1982-83. However, about 100 lowland Thai varieties
were collected in 1982-83 in the approximate study area. Of 166 rice farmers
sampled in a random survey, only one planted a modern rice variety (MV) in
1979, compared to 28 per cent planting MVs in 1984. Adoption of MVs often was
not a unidirectional process at the farm level. Early adopters of MVs
displayed 'contrarian' or 'diversity maintaining' behavior by (a) shifting to
another outside variety before the first became popular, and (b) also using
out-of-favor traditional varieties. In 1983, irrigated, upland, and rainfed
farms had average rice yields of 3.6, 2.9, and 1.9 MT/ha, respectively.
Traditional and modern varieties gave comparable yields under rainfed
conditions. Isozyme analysis of rice variety accessions indicated that many
lowland Thai traditional varieties that were morphologically diverse were
genetically similar, whereas modern varieties brought new isozyme groups to
the region. Adoption of MVs has led to the genetic simplification of lowland
rice agroecosystems in the Philippines and South Korea, but partial adoption
of MVs in northern Thailand has increased genetic diversity of lowland rice
agroecosystems. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1986 A GRAMMATICAL SKETCH OF EASTERN KAYAH (RED KAREN) (BURMA,
THAILAND) This dissertation describes the
Eastern dialect of Kayah (also known as Red Karen), a language of the Karen
group of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan linguistic stock. Kayah
is the major language of the Kayah State of Burma, and is also spoken in a
small area of Mae Hong Son province in northwestern Thailand, where the data
for this grammatical sketch was recorded. Kayah is tonal, monosyllabic (with
familiar qualifications), and lacks affixational morphology except in relic
form. Compounding, however, is extensive, involving both nouns and verbs.
After brief descriptions of the phonology and the nature of the morpheme and
farm classes, a fairly detailed description is given of the Verb Complex, a
potentially very complicated structure centered around the main verb of the
simple clause. Kayah is typical of languages of the mainland Southeast
Asia-southern China linguistic area in having verb serialization (also 'verb
series', 'verb concatenation'). It is unusual in combining basic SVO typology
with extensive use of immediate concatenation of verbs, with no intervening
arguments, a trait more typical of the verb-final languages of the area. It
is argued that these constructions in Kayah are best analyzed as compounds,
formed in the morphology/lexicon, rather than syntactic phrases, whether
base-generated or derived by transformation. The lexical structure of these
compound verbs is described in terms of (a version of) current morphological
theory. Other chapters describe clause structure; the syntactic behavior of
the NP, PP and Numeral-Classifier construction, sentence types; and an
outline of interclausal syntax (nominalized clauses, and clause sequences). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1984 WORLDVIEW EVANGELISM: A CASE STUDY OF THE KAREN BAPTIST CHURCH
IN THAILAND How do animistic people come to
believe in God and grow to spiritual maturity as 'ones whose lives are
modeled after Jesus Christ,' so that reversion and syncretism are avoided?
Can people become Christian just as we find them? Struggling with this
problem over a fifteen-year period among the Karen People of northwestern
Thailand, I began developing by trial and error an effective method I have
called worldview evangelism. This case study shows why this method was
needed, how it developed, and what potentials it may have for church growth.
It is presented as a personal case study, for the benefit the struggle may
have to missionary and national leaders contemplating similar efforts. In
this study I will trace actual experiences leading to a better understanding
of Karen worldview, and the consequent adjustments that were made in team
evangelism. Karen ethnohistory, history of Christian work among Thai Karens,
and concepts relating to worldview evangelism will be considered. Charts and
graphs will hopefully improve understanding. Subsequent field research
efforts on two occasions during the last six years add to the data by which
this concept is tested. A comprehensive method of worldview evangelism is proposed
for identifying, contacting, winning new peoples to the Christian faith, and
nurturing them as they grow into Christian maturity. This method has also
been used to strengthen already organized but weak churches. Worldview
evangelism methods, used under a controlled period of implementation, were
much more effective than traditional methods. The Thailand Karen Baptist
Convention is requesting this method be initiated in 1985 to reach the
remaining 250,000 Karen non-Christians in Thailand. Permanent improvements in
the life of primitive peoples depend largely on a changed and changing
worldview system. Authentic conversion can bring this about. Worldview
evangelism elicits such a response. The Holy Spirit awaits the sensitive
efforts of missionaries, national and foreign, to understand and work within
the worldviews of all mankind. It is the author's hope that this model will
be seriously implemented among other peoples in similar settings. Results
could be exciting. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1983 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PLANTING AND GROWTH OF THE CHURCH IN
BURMA Burma (area 261,228 sq. miles) is predominantly
Buddhist. Only five percent of the population is Christian. The rest are
Hindus, Muslims, secularists and animists. Christianity was introduced by the
Roman Catholics in 1554, and by the Protestants (Baptists) in 1813. The Roman
Catholics started work among the Portuguese believers. There were over 3,000
Roman Catholics in Burma before Adoniram Judson arrived; however there were
no Burmese converts. The first Burmese congregation was formed with eighteen
members in 1822. U Naw was the first Burmese convert, and U Ing, the first
evangelist ever commissioned, was the second convert. A People Movement (mass
conversion to Christianity) began in 1828 with the conversion of Ko Tha Byu,
the first Karen convert. Chins, Kachins, Lahus, Was and other animistic
tribal people became Christians during a similar People Movement. They now
compose ninety-eight percent of the Burmese Christians. Only two percent came
to Christ by individual conversions against the tides and barriers. Preaching
in the zayats, distribution of Christian literature, teaching and translation
of the Bible, establishment of schools and dispensaries, house to house
evangelism, were the main strategies of early missions and evangelism. The
zayat preaching ceased in the twentieth century and gradually shifted to the
Mission Station Approach. An ecumenism was introduced before the Second World
War. The Western missionaries initiated and headed missionary works until
1966, when they were asked to leave, emphasizing theological training from the
beginning. Under the mutual efforts of the Western and national missionaries
the Church grew. There were no serious problems between the missions and the
national churches in Burma. School and medical approaches helped church
growth. Many Karen missionaries were sent to upper Burma. Preaching the
Gospel is a spontaneous act of the typical Burmese convert. This is probably
the main factor of the growth of the Church. Ninety percent of the people in
Burma are still unreached. The Church, therefore, should seek out the most
effective mission strategies and train the Christians on mission awareness
until every hundred communicants send out one home missionary. Hundreds of
itinerant preachers are urgently needed, otherwise Burma will never be
evangelized. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1980 A HISTORY OF CHURCH GROWTH IN THAILAND: AN INTERPRETIVE
ANALYSIS 1816-1980 This work describes, evaluates and
interprets all related historical processes behind the emergence of the Thai
Church during successive stages of missionary activity between 1816-1980. The
effects of relevant political influences, mission policies, and problems
encountered are analyzed for church growth or decline at each stage. Many
observations concerning Thailand are reflected in Mission records of other
lands during similar periods. The first decade concerns pioneer evangelism
among Siamese (Thai) in Burma (through Ann Judson). Anti- mission sentiments,
especially along the American frontiers, added to missionary difficulties.
The fifteen decades following 1828 concerns resident Protestant Missions and
church growth within Thailand. Roman Catholic Missions are summarized. Ethnic
growth--Chinese, Thai, Karen and other tribes--are compared. Two fundamental
mission philosophies were: (1) 'evangelize first, then educate,' and (2)
'educate in order to evangelize.' The effects of each are compared in
relation to church growth. Whenever all activities were geared primarily to
evangelism, church growth seemed inevitable. Key elements included the goal
of planting churches immediately, determined itinerant evangelism, deliberate
training of mature Christian leaders, and Christian believers' education. The
second philosophy hoped for the Church of tomorrow through educating
non-Christian youth of the day. Key personnel were educators, not
evangelists. When personnel shortages arose, eduational institutions
frequently took priority over church needs. Successive stages of growth
include: (1) The exploratory phase of establishing permanent mission stations
by American Baptists, American Presbyterians, and the American Board (ABCFM)
(1816-1851). (2) The period of struggling Church emergence (1851-1883). Early
converts were primarily mission employees and their families. Small people
movements, principally among the Northern Lao pioneered by Daniel McGilvary,
strengthened the Church. (3) A strong growth movement in the North
(1884-1914). McGilvary's mission philosophy is analyzed. (4) A phase of
retarded growth through church consolidation as mission philosophy changed
(1914-1940). A brief revival occurred under John Sung (1938-1939). (5) Church
decline under persecution during World War II (1914-1945). (6) A period of
revitalization through post-war recovery and an influx of new Missions
(1945-1980). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1979 THE KAREN BRONZE DRUMS OF BURMA: THE MAGIC POND -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KARIANG: HISTORY OF KAREN-T'AI RELATIONS FROM THE BEGINNINGS
TO 1923 The Karens, whose population numbers from three to five million, inhabit the Thai-Burma border region as well as parts of the Burma Delta and north Thailand away from the border. Karens are so diverse culturally that no set of defined characteristics, such as religion, clothing, or even a mutually intelligible language applies to all of them. Though many Karens do share a variety of cultural attributes, what sets the Karens off from other groups is their conviction that they are Karens. Karens recognize two main sub-groups, the Sgaws and the Pwos, and a variety of smaller sub-groups, referred to in this dissertation as Red Karens. Karen oral history indicates that Karens entered Southeast Asia from the north, but there are no non-Karen sources that corroborate this belief. Based on Karen oral tradition, on circumstantial evidence from Pagan inscriptions from the ninth to eleventh centuries, and on T'ai chronicles, Karens entered what is now Upper Burma and northern Thailand sometime before the eighth century A.D. References to the Karens in Burman and T'ai literature remains so vague, however, that not until the eighteenth century does a picture of Karens emerge. During the Burma-Mon-Thai wars from 1753-1824, many Karens, caught in the crossfire, fled from Burma into Siam and northern Thailand. Some Karens, often the Pwos, serving as border guards, spies, and scouts, entered Thai life on the frontier. In central Thailand, at least three Karen settlements were ranked by the Thais as Third Class Provinces, and their rulers accorded titles of nobility. Many Karens here were phrais (freemen), having the same responsibilities and benefits as Thai phrai. The Karens in the north and central Thailand supplied the courts in both regions with valuable produce in the traditional Southeast Asian economy that the Thais often did not procure themselves. Karens in Sangkhlaburi were famous for the cotton they brought to the court at Bangkok, and Karens elsewhere provided lac, tin, sappan wood, animal skins, horns, and hides. But the importance of the Karens to Thai life began to ebb in the late-nineteenth century. British domination of the Thai export economy; the Bowring Treaty; King Mongkut's adoption of silver taxation in favor of taxation in kind; and, in 1869, completion of the Suez Canal which made the marketing of bulk goods to Europe feasible; combined to undercut the Karens' contribution to the central Thai and, later, the northern Thai economies. Thailand's economy was transformed from an Asia-oriented, barter economy specializing in luxury exports to a Europe-oriented, money economy specializing in bulk exports such as rice and teak. Most Karens did not possess the resources or capabilities to compete in the developing Thai economy, so Karen economic fortunes were destined to decline. Furthermore, the Karens' usefulness to Thai foreign policy virtually ended in the earl |
